Jim & Ross (Roscoe) Philp started Gridleys Light & Sound in 1970
in Brisbane, Australia.
We used Multi projection, Wetshow, Lumia, Polarising & film painting
in a range of derivative & original forms.
Apart from The Saints, we
lit a few international acts, e.g. BO
DIDDLEY but were mostly booked to light local bands and often when
bands got their own lightshows we lit the whole of the rest of the hall.
Some of the local bands and artists were, PLANET,
MOONLIGHT, RAILROAD
GIN, BLACKFEATHER,
FAT CITY,
SEASON OF THE WITCH, BIGGLES,
JEFF ST. JOHN, KEVIN BORICH,
HUSH, JAMIE
DUNN, DENISE DRYSDALE,
DELILAH,
JEANNIE LEWIS.
We
did work at the University of Queensland, Art College, Queensland Institute
of Technology, Union Nights, Harpo's Night Out, Joint Efforts for the
university union community radio station 4ZZZ
FM using up to 50 projectors.
Also including 18 home made Gridley Mark 1 effects projectors with up
to 3 motorised effects wheels, manual manipulation of slides in the slide
gate & dimming & key board control of the lamps using up to 3
separate keyboards plus foot pedals to control flash rate, colour
, & projector groups.
When
we first started we used a 18 channel Colour organ (6 x bass, mid , treble
musicolors, with variable frequency response). It sounds very high tech
but it was somewhat unrefined by today’s standards, the intention was
to follow the music very closely, but it led to us selecting music which
responded well on the colour organ.
To
solve the problem we made a tone generator and ran the tones through oscillators
or keyboards to control the projectors or lights with the added possibility
of recording the tones on a 4 channel tape deck to play back later with
a stereo sound track.
The
keyboard worked but the recording theory never succeeded worth a damn.
The radiated interference eventually made me move on to better circuitry.
Also used were overhead projectors with clock glasses, dishes, & liquid
chambers animated by aquarium air pumps. Commercial projectors included
Aquarius 1000 , Lito 250, Solar 250, Tutor 2, Syllabus 4000, various Hanimex
slide projectors, & Kodak SAV 2000 . Coloured slides from Edmund
Scientific by Bob Beck were used plus many others from a wide
range of sources.
More work was done with film etching, Litho black & white transparencies
in positive & negative forms, plus more complicated multi projector
images . Much inspiration was taken from the great woodcut artists, electron
micrographs, Op-Art, newspaper clippings, photos, archaeological art,
& general psychedelia.
Particular
contribution from Mick Corley ... Where are you Mick?
Inevitably my brother & I parted company; he formed ELECTRIC TOAD
LIGHTSHOWS, and I to form A
ACTIONPACKED LIGHTSHOWS
We did however continue to co-operate for many years.
Jim
Philp - July 2001
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